Monday, February 10, 2014

47th Letter 2-10-14

 Photos from My Birthday


My Family,

Another super hot day here in Brazil! This past week it almost hit 45 Celsius, which is like 114 degrees Fahrenheit. I have never sweat so much in my life! Ha-ha. But all is well! : ) This week we had pretty good success. I am learning Portuguese a little faster and I have become pretty accustomed to Brazil. Elder Gois and I are getting along well and working hard. The branch is struggling and our investigators are pretty weak... We find a lot of new investigators every week, but when we go back to teach them again they are weak and don’t want us to came back. It is very hard to stay motivated. President Parrela wants us to each get a baptism here this month and we will continue to work hard and I know Heavenly Father will bless us with someone.

Monday was a pretty boring P-day. We mostly just cleaned the house and slept. It is pretty much all we have the energy to do. The work here is very challenging. This night we met a lady that said she had a dream of herself in a fire and 4 Mormon Missionaries came and helped her out of the fire. She explained that the missionaries looked like us and that the dream represented her being held back by Satan in the fire and us trying to help her escape. It was very cool to hear this story and I hope it is true. We explained the importance of our message and that is would help her. She said we could come back whenever. We did go back another day and she had her son lie to us to say she was not there... A member saw her came outside right after we left. I don’t understand why so many people lie here... This night ended well though. Remember Ana Paula? She is an investigator that wants to be baptized, but has to wait 3 months (a new rule our mission has for investigators 9-18). We met her parents, though, and they received us very well! Answered a lot of questions and I think they like us.

Tuesday we had district meeting and then went to the Vila that afternoon. Taught Jennifer about baptism, Adriana the rest of the Restoration, Irmá Rosa about Missionary work, and that night we found two new investigators that seem promising. Super hot here every day and is very hard to talk to people in the streets, because no one wants to wait in the sun and get fried. The heat makes it challenging.

Wednesday, today went pretty good. Had a great lesson with Elias and invited him to the family night on Friday. He is a great guy and needs to be a member. The rest of the day we tried a lot of people, but didn't have too much luck.  That night we did teach Frenad and Mechela and it went well. Dropped a few of our investigators today as well.

Thursday, today went pretty good as well. Saw Jair and talked about the family night we would have. He was pretty excited for it! We then went and saw Nara and her family. Allysn, the son, was very sick so we gave him a blessing. I think he has something wrong with his stomach. That night we taught Elias and followed-up on if he would come to family night.

Friday, today was a better day. Still super hot, but had more success. Had a great lunch with Michael and Gabriel. They talked about how if I return with my parents they will feed us lunch (chorrasco- BBQ). We then taught Karlyn about the Plan of Salvation and Adriana about the BOM and invited her to be baptized on the 22nd of February. She said yes, but I don’t feel like she is ready... She is really lazy about it all and isn’t excited. This night we had an awesome family night! Went so well! Had Elias and his wife there, all the members that we invited and Jairs daughter’s boyfriend who is German and super cool! The spirit was s strong during the Restoration movie and the Testaments after. I think they all felt the power of our message.

Saturday, in the morning we went and contacted a referral we received. It was kind of funny what happened when we got there. The Mom was super nice and let us sit down with her and we shared a little of our message. Her son arrived and she started talking bad on him while he was standing right with us. He drinks and so she was saying how evil he is and how he needs our help. They got to the point where they were almost yelling at one another. Ha-ha. We bore our testimonies that our message would help them and said we would return another day.  Later that day we taught Jusay and invited him to church, but he flaked again. The learning English class is pretty good here. It is fun being able to help people learn English.

Sunday, went to go pick up Adriana, but she was not there...Kind of weird because all her kids were there. Church went well, though, and we learned a lot about Noah and The Arc and more cool stuff in the Old Testament and Pearl of Great Price. Had a great lunch after church and saw a few investigators. Was very hot and sweat through all my clothes, ha-ha. A storm finally came through for only 10 minutes and it was crazy! Took the electricity out and ruined a few things in our house, like the washer and microwave. It was very hard to sleep with no fan so Elder Johanson and I talked for a while about the mission.

I have been thinking about ways to help the area that I am in and really am having a hard time figuring out what they need. Can you all please pray for the people of Sâo Borja that they will open their hearts to our message and follow Christ?

Mom, thank you for the great letter. I hope you have a great time with the Jetettes on the cruise. They do not celebrate Valentines Day here but have something kind of like it; it is a day of boyfriends and girlfriends. It looks like Emme is having a blast with you guys! She is so CUTE!!! : ) I love you Mom and hope all is going well!

Dad, I am glad you can tell I am adjusting to the work here. We pretty much only talk Portuguese here, as far as with the American missionaries, but on occasion we will talk a little English. It feels weird talking in English sometimes. Ha-ha. The French toast is one of the highlights of the day! I haven´t really developed any new tastes. I like rice and beans a lot now and f curse the meat here is usually very good! They have this drink called Terere that is very good! I don’t know how to explain it besides saying its almost like wheat grass. I am glad Millie is keeping you company while mom and Amish are away. I do remember Taylor Murdock! That’s is awesome!! Sounds like you have some exciting things coming up dad! : ) I love you s much Dad! Thank you for all you and Mom do for me. I miss you guys!

Love, Elder Hauck

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